A_Fan wrote:How much juice do the sideline ref's have? Are they comparable to the on field ref when it comes to asserting themselves on a call or are they subservient to the on fielder?

The ref has the final say, but the linesmen can now call fouls. That's why they are now called assistant referees. I think when you and I started watching games at Merlo, they could only call offsides and signal the ball had crossed a line.

But it still varies widely. The NCAA manual has a clause that the head referee is to inform the AR's how much input he wants.

Some AR's have said on the referee forum that the instruction is sometimes close to "I have a white badge. Shut up and stand on the sideline."

A_Fan wrote:How much juice do the sideline ref's have? Are they comparable to the on field ref when it comes to asserting themselves on a call or are they subservient to the on fielder?

The ref has the final say, but the linesmen can now call fouls. That's why they are now called assistant referees. I think when you and I started watching games at Merlo, they could only call offsides and signal the ball had crossed a line.

But it still varies widely. The NCAA manual has a clause that the head referee is to inform the AR's how much input he wants.

Some AR's have said on the referee forum that the instruction is sometimes close to "I have a white badge. Shut up and stand on the sideline."

Recall that the fourth official reported Zidane's headbutt in the 06 final. And he saw it himself, he wasn't watching a replay, no sir ().

The AR or 4th knows the center will pretty much have to call whatever gets reported to him so whatever they decide to report better be important.